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Journal of Architectural Education Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rjae20 Interdisciplinary Reflections and Deflections of Histories of the Scientific Revolution in Alberto Pérez-Gómez's Architecture and the Crisis of Modern Science Stylianos Giamarelosa a Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL Published online: 06 Mar 2015.

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To cite this article: Stylianos Giamarelos (2015) Interdisciplinary Reflections and Deflections of Histories of the Scientific Revolution in Alberto Pérez-Gómez's Architecture and the Crisis of Modern Science, Journal of Architectural Education, 69:1, 17-27, DOI: 10.1080/10464883.2015.987069 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10464883.2015.987069

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It is essential that you check the license status of any given Open and Open Select article to confirm conditions of access and use. Downloaded by [University College London] at 09:40 25 August 2015 Published with license by Taylor & Francis © Stylianos Giamarelos. This is an Open Access article. Interdisciplinary Deflections Non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly Histories of the Scientific Revolution in attributed, cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way, is permitted. The moral rights of the Alberto Pérez-Gómez’s Architecture named author have been asserted. and the Crisis of Modern Science

Stylianos Giamarelos Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL

Alberto Pérez-Gómez’s 1983 Architecture and the instigated by the gradual rise of positiv- ism, around the 1970s. At the moment Crisis of Modern Science is used here as a vehicle for when a new wave of positivism haunts exploring the behavior of disciplinary boundaries contemporary architectural theories of parametricism, while other manifesta- in the context of crisis both historically and tions of crisis loom large (from the theoretically. Responding to his contemporaneous ecological to the epistemological plane), the act of revisiting Alberto Pérez- architectural crisis of the 1970s instigated by the rise Gómez’s 1983 Architecture and the Crisis of positivism, Pérez-Gómez uses Alexandre Koyré’s of Modern Science as a historical case study is expected to lead to an essential history of the scientific revolution as a mirror to reopening of lines of interdisciplinary reflect the historical developments of architectural inquiry for the present condition.

theory upon it. Although effectively circumscribed, Architecture and the Crisis of his deliberate exposure to an interdisciplinary Modern Science in the Historical Context of the Architectural Crisis history nonetheless contributes to the opening up of the 1970s of a much richer constellation of perspectives that Architecture and the Crisis of Modern Science has certainly been a milestone illuminate the nature of the disciplinary crisis he in Pérez-Gómez’s academic career. was trying to negotiate. These in turn open up new For instance, it was largely thanks to its original publication in Spanish in lines of interdisciplinary inquiry for the present 1980, titled La genesis y superacion del condition and the new wave of positivism that funcionalismo en arquitectura (Genesis and overcoming of functionalism haunts contemporary theories of parametricism in a in architecture), that he became a novel moment of crisis. fellow of the Mexican Academy of Architecture, an honor granted for

Downloaded by [University College London] at 09:40 25 August 2015 While disciplinary accounts of crisis thus blur their vulnerable boundar- his “outstanding contributions in tend to portray it as a strictly “inter- ies, opening up alternative lines the field of .” nal” affair in the history of modern of inquiry that in turn enrich our Shortly afterward, the Society of professions, in this article, I opt to vocational understandings. Often Architectural Historians character- treat moments of crisis precisely instigating both reflection and ized the 1983 publication of the book as occasions for vocational cracks inquiry, moments of crisis thus in English as “the most distinguished into interdisciplinarity. Unbound acquire both historical interest and work of scholarship in the history by artificially imposed disciplinary theoretical implications for the of architecture published in North boundaries, phenomena of crisis present. America between Nov. 1, 1981 to Oct. can therefore be understood in their Those broader questions relat- 31, 1983,” granting its author the increased complexity as varying ing to the behavior of disciplinary Alice Davies Hitchcock Book Award. manifestations of common historical boundaries in the context of crisis can The wider disciplinary recognition shifts. By exposing the only rela- be both historically and theoretically implicit in these institutional asser- tive autonomy of each disciplinary elucidated by revisiting one of the most tions may be better understood today field, these moments of uncertainty recent moments of disciplinary crisis, when the book is situated within the

JAE 69:1 17 of Mexico, 1971) to “The Meaning of other’s texts, serve here as a useful crys- Geometry in Late 18th Century French tallization of the debates of the period. Architecture” (MA thesis, University This is precisely the broader context of of Essex, 1975), and from there on to British architectural discourse in which “The Use of Geometry and Number in the MA program is Architectural Theory: From Symbols historically situated. But while Jencks, of Reconciliation to Instruments of Baird, and Broadbent turned to lin- Technological Domination” (PhD dis- guistics and semiology in their attempt sertation, University of Essex, 1979). to reclaim the architectural qualities The prevailing concepts in all those that render a space “communicative,”2 alternative theses and book titles of a Rykwert and Vesely proposed a turn to scholarly interest, which is essentially history, phenomenology, and hermeneu- shaped and stabilized in the mid-1970s, tics instead (Figure 1). in turn summarize the understanding Thus, in a period when techno- of the contemporaneous disciplinary logical optimism and instrumental crisis offered by the University of Essex rationalism dominated the field, the MA program: functionalism represents a University of Essex MA program aimed crisis of meaning in architecture, whose to reinscribe architectural history and roots lie in the use of geometry and theory in the tradition of the humanities, number as instruments of technological and the debates around the multifarious Figure 1. Alberto Pérez-Gómez’s Architecture and domination. legacy of the Enlightenment—as well as the Crisis of Modern Science in the crossroads of When Rykwert and Vesely set up its discontents. Rykwert’s “Theoretical ’s phenomenological and Joseph the University of Essex MA program Literature of Architecture before Rykwert’s historically oriented teachings at the University of Essex MA Program, in the context of in 1968, they were in fact offering 1800” module proposed a close read- the wider 1970s debates for meaning and a self- their own perspective on an emerging ing of architectural theories “inevitably reflexive theory for architecture. debate instigated by a new generation centre[d] on the Italian treatises of the of British architectural theorists, crit- XVIth and the XVIIth centuries, and historical context of its production. ics, and historians. Irrespectively of their the French literature of the XVIIIth,” In the final instance, what came to subsequently divergent approaches, as it moved forward in time toward be globally known as Architecture and Charles Jencks, George Baird, Geoffrey the Enlightenment. It aimed to estab- the Crisis of Modern Science is a slightly Broadbent, Kenneth Frampton, Alan lish “a new relationship between the reworked version of Pérez-Gómez’s Colquhoun, and Nathan Silvers (to name Ancients and the Moderns ... that ques- 1979 PhD dissertation, supervised just a few) all shared a common ground tioned th[e] scientistic organization of by (but also closely when they acknowledged a deep-seated .”3 Vesely’s “Phenomenology followed by Dalibor Vesely) at the crisis in the discipline around the 1970s. and Psychology of ; Their University of Essex. Not only did they acknowledge a crisis Implications for Methods of Design” Completed right after the of meaning in their contemporaneous module, on the other hand, explored University of Essex MA program architectural production (that could issues of perception—especially in closed its decade-long historical only be intensified by the accompanying relation to memory, orientation, cor- circle (1968–78), the dissertation is discussions of systems analysis, cyber- poreality, and culture. His proposed essentially the culmination of their netics, and an architecture of the great reading list was almost exclusively com- long-standing academic relationship, number), but they were also at odds prised of fundamental philosophical

Downloaded by [University College London] at 09:40 25 August 2015 which has clearly shaped Pérez-Gómez with the status quo of architectural his- treatises of phenomenology and herme- as a scholar in architectural history and tory and theory, especially as the latter neutics, ranging from ’s theory. Originally trained as an archi- was by then taught in British schools Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental tect in Mexico (1971), Pérez-Gómez of architecture. Opposing an increas- Phenomenology and ’s followed the MA program in the his- ingly positivist technical education, and Time to Hans-Georg Gadamer’s tory and theory of architecture at the an architectural theory that aspired to and Method and Maurice Merleau- University of Essex just two years emulate the scientific method, and a Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception.4 later (1973–74). A mere mention of the linear understanding of architectural Vesely’s module was complemented by titles of his theses and dissertations history as the progressive succession of “The Individual Building and the Total provides sufficient indication of the monolithic styles, they advocated a self- Environment” and “The Nature of Style subsequent focal shift in his interests: reflexive architectural theory instead. and Language in Architecture” semi- Pérez-Gómez moves from the broader The essays collected in the 1969 anthol- nars, initially taught by George Baird, “Concept of Space as an Essential ogy, Meaning in Architecture (edited by and later by Antoine Grumbach.5 In one Element in Architecture” (honors Jencks and Baird),1 discursively including of his later e-mail messages to Helen thesis, National Polytechnic Institute the comments of the authors on each Thomas (April 7, 2003), Vesely explained

18 Interdisciplinary Deflections that his seminars intended to explore trajectory followed by the young PhD retains Husserl’s phenomenological the “situatedness of consciousness”— student seems to have been far more diagnosis of crisis as its main interpre- especially in relation to “the role of the nuanced than this linear and harmoni- tative undercurrent. body, corporeal scheme and space (the ous story implied by Pérez-Gómez’s move from Husserl to Merleau Ponty), retrospective account. This is at Interdisciplinary Reflections: and eventually interest in Heidegger least attested by the difficulties he Alexandre Koyré’s History of and his notion of the structured world faced when submitting his disserta- the Scientific Revolution as a manifested in the most concrete form tion, a tension that was only resolved Blueprint for Pérez-Gómez’s (manner) as situation.”6 when Werner Oechslin was asked to Architectural Account Even such a brief account of intervene, and he did so to Pérez- It is significant to start this peculiar the seminars is enough to raise the Gómez’s benefit, indeed. The account retrieval of interdisciplinary history question of a common ground or of this trajectory suggests that his in Pérez-Gómez’s book by noting methodological consistency between 1979 dissertation actually resembles a that references to studies in the his- Rykwert’s primarily historical interest battleground, with the author anxiously tory of science represent only 0.01% in rereading European architectural struggling to find his own voice amidst in the total sum of the book’s 698 treatises and Vesely’s philosophically the clashing strong influences of both endnotes. With his 1983 English motivated endeavors. Thomas sug- his mentors. While Vesely’s hermeneu- title clearly alluding to Husserl’s gests that their meeting point was to be tic influence seems indisputable—with 1936 Crisis of European Science and found “in their intention to develop an Neil Leach even alluding to Plato’s rela- Transcendental Phenomenology, Pérez- understanding of architecture within a tion to Socrates when he asserts that Gómez obviously insists on both the deep cultural context that connected Pérez-Gómez’s book “eloquently artic- epistemological dimension and the the past to the present.”7 Was that ulates the central thesis behind Vesely’s phenomenological line of interpret- vaguely shared concern enough for outlook”10—Rykwert’s, or, more ing the theoretical developments their different approaches to cohere broadly, the historically informed con- that lie at the heart of his book. into, as it were, a distinctive ‘Essex tribution to Pérez-Gómez’s thesis, does Hence, his narrative is not merely School method’ of architectural history not yet seem sufficiently highlighted. dominated by the return of geometry and theory, though?8 The different, It is precisely in this context that at the forefront of human knowledge and mainly personal, answers to this I propose an alternative reading of about the world. Equally important is question can most effectively be pur- Architecture and the Crisis of Modern Science its gradual emptying from any sym- sued in the work of their numerous that attempts to retrieve the peculiar bolic or other metaphysical charge, disciples, from Robin Evans and David role of history within it. Motivated by as well as its concurrent conversion Leatherbarrow to Mohsen Mostafavi an interest in what this book, as a child into a formal system that may well be and . For Pérez- of its own time, can possibly mean for internally consistent but is thence- Gómez, in particular, “their approach the present concerns of the profession, forth clearly distinct from the lived worked very well together. Joseph I read Pérez-Gómez’s work as that of a world of quotidian experience. More went ‘forward’ from Vitruvius to the scholar who attempts to work across a than anything else, it is precisely 18th century, Dalibor ‘backward’ from disciplinary border (from architecture this dimension in his work that both phenomenology to the 19th century to the history of science) precisely at documents his lessons from Vesely ending with Semper.”9 Following his the moment of a perceived disciplin- and reveals its methodological ori- lessons from Rykwert, Pérez-Gómez’s ary crisis. Attempting to associate gins in the philosophical tradition of book also goes forward from Claude the peculiar rise of functionalism in Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology Perrault’s architectural treatises of the architectural theory with the epochal and Hans-Georg Gadamer’s herme-

Downloaded by [University College London] at 09:40 25 August 2015 late seventeenth century to Gaspar changing worldview, initially trig- neutics.11 In this specific context, Monge’s late eighteenth-century gered by the seventeenth-century the fact that Pérez-Gómez selects functionalization of geometry and developments in science and natural Alexandre Koyré’s work as his major Jean-Nicolas Louis Durand’s early philosophy, Pérez-Gómez aspires to reference from the historiography nineteenth-century version of func- no less than a total redefinition of our of the scientific revolution is hardly tionalism in architecture; and, following historical awareness of architectural surprising.12 For his is not only his lessons from Vesely, his argument modernity—which could in turn imply an important work that shares an is hermeneutically informed by the an overcoming of functionalism and approach of the scientific revolution present, that is, his contemporaneous its late twentieth-century discontents. as an episode in the history of ideas, concerns regarding the functionalist My reading will focus on the way in but its author was also mentored by legacy of postwar modern architecture which his architectural account may Edmund Husserl. And while the cen- and the positivist reduction of archi- well reflect a broad historical map- tral figure for his study is probably tectural theory to a methodology of ping derived from the conclusions of Newton, Pérez-Gómez cannot stop scientific building. contemporaneous historians of the referring to the “Galilean revolution” However, the actual intellectual scientific revolution, but it effectively throughout his book—precisely

Giamarelos JAE 69:1 19 because therein lies the most sys- whose value remains unchallenged, and limits between ontologically different tematic origin of the geometrization the conversion of questions concern- areas (topoi) and their accompanying of nature; and this is precisely what ing value and meaning into parameters teleology. This infinite universe is only both Husserl (1936) and his disciple, that can functionally define form, are bound by the common laws of nature Koyré (1939), also do when they place the main features of Pérez-Gómez’s that inexorably govern all its elements Galileo at the turning point of their perceived crisis in architectural theory, via forces of attraction and repul- own approaches to the history of along the lines of Husserl’s diagnosis sion. “Geometrization of space,” on modern science.13 of the crisis of modern science. This is the other hand, stands for the crucial By effectively reflecting the precisely the point where the history of intellectual transition to an equally conclusions of Husserl and Koyré the scientific revolution enters his own homogeneous Euclidean space, in in the domain of architecture, the study, indeed: “modern architecture, which every position can be quanti- main thread of Pérez-Gómez’s own and the crisis it faces, has its roots in tatively defined. This comes in sharp hermeneutic historical narrative con- a historical process touched off by the contrast to the Aristotelian conception sists of the gradual rationalization or Galilean revolution.”15 This process of space (organized around the suc- “functionalization” of architectural involves the gradual foregrounding of cession of qualitatively differenttopoi ) theory. Already ascendant in the mid- number and geometry as fundamental that constituted the ancient world of seventeenth century, these tendencies factors in architectural theories of the quotidian experience. Hence, there is for a rationalized theory of architecture period. Pérez-Gómez argues that this a direct link between these two major culminate in the early nineteenth- is the case indeed, since these are both a priori changes, since the Euclidean century work of Jean-Nicolas-Louis factors that have been endowed with conception of space also implies the Durand. Separated from wider cos- value and meaning by Newton’s natural abolishment of a deeply established mological or philosophical systems, at philosophy, and its underlying Platonic hierarchical ontological (and, in the last this point in time, architectural theory cosmology that leads to a geometriza- instance, value-laden) distinction of the becomes a self-referential and inter- tion of nature16—as already argued by terrestrial from the celestial area. nally consistent system governed by Koyré. Pérez-Gómez repeatedly resorts the laws of mathematics that acquires According to Koyré, science is to a common general interpretative its meaning “internally” by this math- not a predominantly empirical process schema for many of the architectural ematical system itself. At the same relying upon the mere accumulation of theorists that parade throughout his time, this mathematical system lends observational data, and the subsequent study. In almost every case, he usually architectural theory its epistemological generalizations extrapolated from them foregrounds the internal tension devel- legitimation, since it proves success- through induction. Scientific novelty oping between their positivist tendency ful in addressing the modern demands arises instead from a priori changes in toward an absolute formalization of for a scientifically objective theory. In the scientific spirit, which primarily architectural theory, in the image of this epistemological context, any other take place in the field of metaphys- contemporaneous developments in external reference can only be consid- ics (or philosophy). In science, the a mathematics (and, especially, algebra ered inexorably subjective. Durand thus priori element precedes the empirical; and descriptive geometry), and their moves architecture away from art and the latter is actually constructed and need for retaining a residue of symbolic closer to science. Therein lies the gap experimentally tested in response to meaning through an ultimate reference between “the eternal and immutable the claims of a specific theory, and to an external element. This intellectual dimension of ideas [and] the finite in the terms of its language.17 These trajectory is in turn similar to the one and mutable dimension of everyday presupposed a priori changes, which followed by Koyré in his From the Closed life.”14 It is the same gap that Alexandre also render the scientific revolution as World to the Infinite Universe (1957). There,

Downloaded by [University College London] at 09:40 25 August 2015 Koyré’s mentor, Edmund Husserl, had a rupture from the scientific practices the transition to the idea of an infinite already highlighted as characteristic of of the ancient and the medieval world universe is realized through the gradual the crisis of modern science in 1936. before it, are “the destruction of the magnification and subsequent explo- By opposing the modern tendencies of Cosmos” and the “geometrization of sion of the bubble of the ancient world identifying theory with a mere meth- space.”18 “Destruction of the Cosmos” in the work of natural philosophers and odology for technical and constructive stands for the gradual replacement protoscientists of the period. efficiency, and a sum of general rules of the ancient Greek world picture Koyré’s work also allows Pérez- for any conceivable purpose (as with that of a modern universe. The Gómez to trace the crucial differences opposed to a specific and meaningful enclosed and hierarchically ordered in the architectural debates between teleology), Pérez-Gómez intends to whole of the ancient world, whose a mainly Newtonian Perrault and a foreground the significance of a histori- elements were driven to their natural mostly Galilean François Blondel.19 cal horizon of meaning for architecture. place in the inferior terrestrial or the According to Koyré, Newton’s pri- The functionalization of architecture, superior celestial sphere, is gradu- mary focus lies on the mathematical the reduction of almost every aspect ally replaced by a homogeneous open description of reality through a series of it to a formal system of relations, universe, in which there is no place for of experiments that will inductively

20 Interdisciplinary Deflections lead to the suggestion of a theory. geometry derives from mechanics; scientific revolution exerts its influ- While such a theory cannot avoid on the other hand, the geometrical ence on architectural theorists of the including hypotheses as fundamen- order of his Platonic cosmology was late seventeenth and early eighteenth tal axioms (concerning the particle a primordial symbol of God’s par- centuries. nature of light, for instance), these ticipation in Being, confirming the (a) Macroscopic epistemological are legitimate and acceptable as long significance of human action in an influence: after the scientific as they result or derive from the spe- infinite universe.”21 In other words, revolution, architectural cific quantitative experimental data. Newton’s work, with its strong a priori theories are developed Perrault’s intention to separate the assumptions, can still guarantee the within a totally different conceptual dimension of number and ties that bind the world of science, epistemological model that architectural proportion on a level which describes the reality of absolute opposes traditional theo- that is different from, and simultane- movement in the language of math- ries. Architectural theorists ously underlies, our common everyday ematics, with the world of everyday adopt the main thesis of experience of buildings casts him as experience and relative movements.22 Newton’s natural philoso- a Newtonian figure. Pérez-Gómez According to Pérez-Gómez, it is phy as a strong conviction argues that the core of the Blondel- precisely these “external” metaphysi- of their own. Assuming the Perrault debate lies in the possibility cal commitments of the Newtonian definite existence of a math- of relativizing the very values that worldview that provide the ultimate ematical law that correlates used to bestow any architectural horizon of meaning to Newton’s quantifiable (geometric) creation with meaning and aesthetic scientific practice. Hence, his math- sums, their scientific task value. Inasmuch as he moves closer to ematics of absolute space and time lies in discovering it through the Platonic tradition of mathemat- is not strictly formal in the positivist empirical research. In a ics, Blondel is also closer to a Galilean sense, since its legitimation derives similar fashion, they attempt figure: “Relying on the traditional from the absolute reality of a world to found the objectivity of belief that our perceptional world where God is still present as the final architectural theory upon an is a projection of the human body, guarantor of the validity, normality, invariable constant underly- Blondel maintained that geometry and harmony of the natural laws.23 ing the superficial succession and proportion, being transcenden- Newton’s subtle metaphysical of historical styles and tal entities, guaranteed the highest assumptions in turn exert an influ- orders. architectural meaning, apart from ence of their own in architectural (b) Microscopic epistemological the specificity of ornament or style.”20 theories of the period. As long as influence: in this case, archi- This is Blondel’s only way out of the the Newtonian model prevails, the tectural theory production relativization of architectural meaning technical can coexist with the aes- is understood as part of the that was incipient in Perrault’s work thetic dimension of architecture in wider cultural fermentations that came before him. In his work the context of a whole that is not of the period. It is the spe- there is no space for a distinction utterly self-referential.24 Pérez-Gómez cific work of distinct figures between mere technical efficiency and contends that this is precisely the from the history of the sci- empirical sufficiency from the abso- accomplishment of neoclassical entific revolution that exerts lutely invariable cause and purpose architecture, which should not be its influence upon architec- of architecture. Hence, not only the conflated with a spirit of eclecticism tural theorists, thus leading book of nature but also the book of between alternating formal styles them to different approaches building is written in the language of and systems. And from that partial and critical debates. The

Downloaded by [University College London] at 09:40 25 August 2015 geometry. reinterpretation of a specific archi- aforementioned example of Examples like these constantly tectural style, he concludes with a the Perrault-Blondel as anal- recur in Pérez-Gómez’s account. broader redefinition of architectural ogous to the Newton-Galileo His overview of the developments modernity, claiming that “modern debate is a characteristic in architectural theory of the period architecture did not appear around case in point. consistently highlight a prevailing 1750 and that it was not simply gener- (c) Superfluous influence: in ambivalence regarding the status and ated by the Industrial Revolution. The this case, the mere men- nature of geometry and number, as process of transformation of theory tion of Newton’s name as well as their special contribution in into an instrument of technological an indubitable authority establishing a desirable (e.g., cosmic) domination started with modern sci- lends its gravitas to various harmony. Obviously following Koyré’s ence itself.”25 assumptions of architectural interpretation again, he traces this To sum up Pérez-Gómez’s theorists. See, for instance, ambivalence within Newton him- interdisciplinary foray into Koyré’s Charles-Etienne Briseux, self: “On the one hand, and on a history of science, there are prob- who used Newton’s name as practical level, Newton attested that ably four main ways in which the a means of legitimizing his

Giamarelos JAE 69:1 21 Figure 2. The illustrations of Georgius Agricola’s 1556 treatise on metallurgy, De re metallica (from left to right, 391, 72, and 181) are indicative of the impressive technical achievements of the practitioners of the period. According to Zilsel, key figures of the scientific revolution, like William Gilbert and Galileo Galilei, benefited greatly from their contact with this previously disregarded world of master craftsmen and artisans.

own “insights” concerning from the human project. However, that prevails in Pérez-Gómez’s study, nature, harmony, and the their conviction that the artistic and setting the phenomenological-herme- arts.26 scientific dimensions of architecture neutical tone of interpretation of his (d) Methodological influ- are still reconcilable can only be fully historical material. In Husserl’s light, ence: in this case, it is accomplished in the perfect sphere Pérez-Gómez’s study appears as a the experiment as a main of architectural drawing—and not natural development of this particular feature of the modern sci- through their imperfect realization phenomenological line of thought, entific practice that drives in building.29 Thus, they unwit- through its reflective extension from the appearance of proto- tingly contribute to a widening gap the domain of science to that of archi- experimental methods in between theory and practice, which tectural theory. architectural theory—mani- in turn is a rather unexpected con- However, this process of reflection fest in an increased emphasis sequence of Koyré’s “destruction of works as a double-edged sword. On on collecting empirical data. the Cosmos.” the one hand, it provides Pérez-Gómez Marc-Antoine Laugier, who Yet while Pérez-Gómez’s conclu- with strong conceptual and meth- documented the existence of sions certainly retain their validity for odological tools (from interpretative inherent and essential aes- the field of architecture, they appear categories to a sense of orientation for thetic qualities in architecture rather circumscribed when viewed his historical narrative) that allow him through a peculiar “experi- from the perspective of histories of to understand the work of established mental” confirmation of his science. By constantly returning to figures in the field of architectural thesis (i.e., an empirical study the same concepts and interpreta- theory in the context of a broader of the impressions caused to tions derived mainly from Husserl, cultural shift signaled by the scientific himself and others by specific and often indirectly through Koyré, revolution.30 On the other, the a priori buildings) is a characteristic Pérez-Gómez circumscribes what ini- reflection of a ready-made interpreta- example here.27 Same goes for tially seems like an opportunity for a tive framework hinders other possible Nicola Carletti, who regarded variegated opening to interdisciplinary interdisciplinary deflections, as it were,

Downloaded by [University College London] at 09:40 25 August 2015 architecture as a science that histories. Often acting as an intermedi- that remain latent in the multifarious could use Newton’s analytical ate, Koyré’s history of science can only historical accounts of the same period. methods.28 serve as an alibi for an interdisciplin- Readily available to the author at the ary history of architecture, when in time of writing, and already widely Meanwhile, the pure geometrical the final instance it practically echoes debated during the late 1960s, those volumes of the Platonic solids and and reinforces Husserl’s dominant alternative perspectives on the histo- the empty homogeneous spaces in line of interpretation. That is to say, riography of the scientific revolution the architecture of Étienne-Louis as an interdisciplinary history, Pérez- can serve as a useful launchpad for Boullée and Claude-Nicolas Ledoux Gómez’s account is in the final instance further exploration of those possible attempt to render the absolute overtheorized, hence circumscribed. interdisciplinary deflections. The added space and time of Newtonian natu- In other words, while Architecture and challenge to current understandings ral philosophy a tangible everyday the Crisis of Modern Science revisits many and the disciplinary boundaries they reality—reconciling human ends of the architectural treatises discussed entail—alongside Pérez-Gómez’s with an “external” Nature that is in the context of Rykwert’s seminar, significant, albeit predominantly philo- thenceforth regarded as independent it is indubitably Vesely’s teaching sophical, opening to interdisciplinary

22 Interdisciplinary Deflections Figure 3. Subsequent depictions of the figure of the architect gradually leaving behind the tools of manual labor and excelling in the theoretical knowledge of the orders and the proportions of harmony. The illustrations are in line with the agenda of the Parisian Academie d’Architecture (1671– 1717) that intended to move the architect away from the mess of the construction site.

histories of the scientific revolution in understanding of the scientific rational evaluation of the available argu- architecture—opens up a constellation revolution.33 What are the possible ments for and against opposing views. of possible historiographical perspec- implications of all this for novel archi- Nonetheless, Barnes agrees that the tives, which may also allow us to follow tectural histories and theories of the scientific revolution can still be legiti- these threads of an epistemological period, though? mately approached as an episode in the crisis that still runs unbound up to the In response to all of the above, history of ideas, precisely because this present moment. Pérez-Gómez could of course follow is still a period when the boundaries Koyré in arguing that social forces between philosophy and science have Interdisciplinary Deflections: cannot adequately explain exceptional not been institutionalized, nor can they Toward Other Histories of Science figures like Newton. Even if one be retrospectively defined.35 and Architecture accepts this as a valid point, though, In that sense, Pérez-Gómez’s Effectively limited to the realm of without contesting the very concept study retains its indubitable signifi- a history of ideas, Pérez-Gómez’s of the individual genius, it seems that cance as well. However, if one follows study does not discuss the signifi- it is precisely these social forces—and Barnes’s argument further into the cance of “external”/wider social and their complex interactions through field of architectural theory, then an political developments in relation to politics—that explain both the deci- intellectual history of architectural the “internal”/intellectual develop- sive acceptance of Newton’s work as a developments during the scientific ments during the long period of the culturally dominant factor of modern revolution can only be a necessary first scientific revolution. However, dif- life and the wider dissemination and step toward a more comprehensive ferent social groups and their shifting social legitimation it enjoyed afterward. understanding. If the developments relations, as well as those between Or, in the words of Barry Barnes, and in the history of science since 1930 are wider political formations and insti- in a supposed absence of a sociological anything to go by, indeed, then the tutions, inexorably play a crucial role account of the history of science, the latent potential of such architectural in the propagation of the scientific history of ideas alone cannot adequately studies seems enormous. Pérez- revolution as a historical process.31 explain itself.34 That is to say, it cannot Gómez’s study might then anticipate its

Downloaded by [University College London] at 09:40 25 August 2015 This “external” history of science explain the way in which those specific successors inasmuch as the fundamen- involves both the tensions associ- changes in the metaphysical assump- tal transition from the “more-or-less” ated with the reconciliation of the tions of each period, which are indeed world of craftsmen to the quantifiable scientific with the religious world- tirelessly diagnosed and mapped by his- precision of the world of academics, image and the specific attitudes torians of ideas like Koyré, actually take retraced by Koyré, could only be read encouraged by the prevailing spirits place. If one would additionally con- alongside a complementary sociological of Protestantism and Catholicism,32 sider the fact that hardly ever are there approach of the same phenomenon, as well as the interactions between conclusive arguments for or against any like the one carried out by Edgar Zilsel, specific social groups that gradually metaphysical thesis, it is rather obvi- for instance.36 shape scientific communities and ous that the question concerning the In his equally influential historical their practices. The social dynamic dominance of certain assumptions on studies, Zilsel intended to highlight that both supports and legitimates the scale of a whole epoch refers to a characteristic social structures that science as a novel mode of knowl- very complex phenomenon. It is clearly could be associated with certain sys- edge production is therefore an impossible to exhaust the latter in a tems of knowledge and their modes equally significant part of a historical process of completely disinterested and of production. According to Zilsel,

Giamarelos JAE 69:1 23 the main features that needed to be allows the academic literati to adopt from the end of the Middle Ages to the combined in order to produce the the artisans’ experimental methods and late sixteenth century. scientific method pertained to dif- recuperate them within their rational- But Zilsel’s crucial historio- ferent social classes, whose special ist ways of thinking. In their hands, graphical challenge is not limited to a education enabled them to develop the practical rules of the artisans can question of an alternative periodiza- only a specific set of those skills. In now be reformulated as laws of nature. tion that would shift the architectural other words, the boundaries that had According to Zilsel, this successful historians’ attention to what has already to be overcome were not only intel- recuperation is characteristically exem- been touted as the “first scientific revo- lectual but also social. The scientific plified in the cases of Galileo Galilei, lution” of the fourteenth-century late revolution was therefore possible only Francis Bacon, and William Gilbert. In medieval world.38 Discussions about when the restructuring of social rela- their major treatises, all three of them an alternative periodization could tions, due to the gradual shift from express their deep appreciation for, have already been instigated without a feudal to a capitalist economy, led and refer extensively to, the remarkable veering off the realm of intellectual to a redefinition of previous class empirical technological feats of their histories of science, indeed. In treat- boundaries. It was this ongoing social contemporaneous naval, metal, and ing the scientific revolution in terms of process that initially created meet- military artisans and engineers (Figure continuity—instead of rupture—with ing points and gradually facilitated 2). Thus, these major figures in the the past advances of science, Pierre the interaction between university history of science practically embody Duhem’s 1908 history of science had scholars and humanistic literati (who the bridging of a social gap, as in the already inscribed the scientific prac- were trained to methodically develop case of Galileo and his lessons from the tices of Galileo and Copernicus into a their abstract thinking, cultivating the Venetian arsenali.37 longer line of tradition that went back intellectual skills necessary for ratio- This social process is embedded to the late Middle Ages.39 By studying nal argumentation), on the one hand, within the progressive development the work of natural philosophers like and artisans (who excelled in empiri- of an early capitalist economy that Jean Buridan and Nicole Oresme at the cal observations and devised original weakens collective mentalities and University of , Duhem highlighted proto-experimental techniques, along discourages prejudice, while reinforc- the reappearance and retainment of with the instruments those required, ing the secular, rational-causal way of fourteenth-century concepts in seven- but lacked a corresponding train- thinking, along with a spirit of individu- teenth-century science, arguing for the ing in rationalist methodologies), on alism. According to Zilsel, the critical medieval practitioners’ contribution the other. There was a social barrier scientific spirit is directly associated to an understanding of fundamental between the artisans, whose manual/ with economic competition; that is concepts that still underlay the sub- material contact with the world enabled precisely why it has never appeared sequent mechanics later elaborated them to empirically deduce rules of within social formations that are not and further developed by the likes of thumb for their practice, and the lite- structured around it, that is, outside Galileo, Descartes, and Newton. A rati who could easily use those rules as the Western European sphere of influ- turn to Duhem’s alternative timeline initial steps for proceeding to abstract ence of the seventeenth century. The of developments is also corroborated generalizations and inductions in the rise of quantification is also difficult in the case of architecture by the short language of mathematics. However, this to be disassociated from the rational time lapse between the constitution was not merely a matter of training but calculus required by the members of and identification of the community of a matter of specific mental habits and capitalist economies. Even the revival architects before that of the scientists. attitudes as well. University scholars of Greek mathematics was made pos- Such an approach would then help the and humanistic literati held manual sible by the increased needs of the new scholar in architectural history associate

Downloaded by [University College London] at 09:40 25 August 2015 labor in such a low esteem that they social organization for calculus and the developments in an early architec- could have never developed anything measurement. What gradually came to tural and an early scientific community, remotely like the experimental meth- be known as the “Zilsel thesis” has even putting the architectural repercus- ods cultivated by the artisans. Thus, the further historiographical implications, sions of the scientific revolution into a social and intellectual osmosis that lies though. If the development of modern long-term perspective.40 Last but not at the origins of the modern scientific science coincides with the transition least, and inasmuch as Pérez-Gómez’s method was indeed accompanied, and from feudalism to capitalism, indeed, main concern still revolves around further facilitated, by an unprecedented then historical research needs to move the dissemination of epistemological cultural shift toward a reappreciation away from Koyré’s conventional peri- developments in natural science in of the significant value of manual work. odization of the scientific revolution other disciplines, his study could have Thus, modern science is born precisely (from the publication of Copernicus’s also benefited from the later works of at the moment when a certain level De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium in Eduard Jan Dijksterhuis (1950). Largely of technological progress, combined 1543 to Newton’s Philosophiae Naturalis sharing Koyré’s view that the crucial with an overcoming of derogatory Principia Mathematica in 1687) to an shift during the scientific revolution lies prejudices regarding manual work, altogether different time span, ranging in the processes of mathematization

24 Interdisciplinary Deflections of the world picture, Dijksterhuis have already developed practical solu- interdisciplinarity allegedly prevails in attempted to extend his research from tions to difficult problems following many registers at the present moment, physics in other domains, like chem- their hands-on method of empirical very often induced precisely by diagno- istry and the life sciences.41 However, experimentation, then the image of ses of crisis, the sometimes cryptic and this was also the point where the the intellectual historians of science is only nominal forms of interdisciplin- limits of this interpretative schema reversed: the architects and engineers arity upon which these diagnoses are appeared very clearly. Mathematics of the period become the central focus built need to be as closely scrutinized were not as important in the develop- of attention, with the scientific com- and identified. At the moment when ment of other sciences, where Koyré’s munity following and learning from another dominant form of modern- and Dijksterhuis’s main thesis started their achievements. Who are all those ist discourse, like parametricism, to feel more like a straitjacket than a relatively anonymous figures of artisans presents itself as the autonomous all- historically informed account. Could and master craftsmen, and what are the inclusive universal metalanguage for the this also be the case for architectural crucial microhistorical shifts of their architecture of the future, the interdis- developments of the period? Pérez- rising social status, as they gradually ciplinary legacy of the “Essex School” Gómez’s strongly theorized historical become autonomous professionals? It of architectural history and theory account definitely didn’t leave room for is the task of architectural historians needs to come out of its “historical exploring similar questions. Reflecting to retrace these stories, and in doing cocoon” through a radical deflection.45 rather than deflecting Koyré’s account, so, they can inform our understanding If Patrik Schumacher’s “autopoietic” Pérez-Gómez practically leaves it of the scientific revolution, this time parametricism is only the most recent unchallenged, precisely at the moment from the side of an active disciplinary neopositivist child of the postmodern when architecture could start acquiring contribution to it. In other words, and condition,46 then a novel breed of self- its own peculiar sort of agency through rather paradoxically so, the most useful reflexive architectural theory for the an active contribution to (instead of interdisciplinary study for explor- 2010s needs to reopen such lines of a rather passive reflection of) the sci- ing the historical relations between interdisciplinary inquiry (Figure 4). entific developments of the period. architecture and the natural sciences Such an approach can considerably Offering a radical deflection, Zilsel’s is the one that focuses on the specific help both qualify the epistemological crucial challenge pushes further in this achievements of the discipline itself as claims of parametricism and reveal direction. it is gradually shaped during the same the complex power issues, alongside Inasmuch as architectural his- period. Zilsel’s potential deflection the economic, political, social, and torians are fascinated by intellectual in the historiography of architecture pedagogical agendas behind it. Since histories of science, they tend to would allow historians of science to contemporary scholars have already perceive the historical developments rethink the scientific revolution in started revisiting the work of early in the scientific domain as blueprints a slightly different way, much closer modern philosophers as a reply to the for the subsequent architectural ones. to the logic of “the architecture of architectural challenges left unad- However, the gradual autonomy gained science.”42 What is gradually being dressed by parametricism,47 the need by a community of master craftsmen sketched here is an approach where for a proliferation of such interdisci- who start practicing architecture as a Pérez-Gómez’s study would unexpect- plinary deflections seems ever more liberal art, and their contemporane- edly end up meeting historiographical relevant for the present moment, when ous distinct depictions as figures who approaches of architecture like the similar examples of crisis unbound thenceforth hold only a drawing, a ones propagated by Spiro Kostof, certainly abound. IT and its role in the ruler, and a compass, do indeed predate Mary Hollingsworth, and Elizabeth production of knowledge was already the constitution of the first scientific Mays Merrill on the microscale, and there right from the start in 1979 in

Downloaded by [University College London] at 09:40 25 August 2015 communities (Figure 3). If those his- even by Manfredo Tafuri (1992) on the Jean-François Lyotard’s account of torical signs are anything to go by, then macroscale.43 It would also herald the the postmodern condition, anyway. “external” social and political factors moment when histories of science and In other words, the most recent crisis may well play an even more significant architecture both need to open up to of the modern world, the crisis from role in the developments in architec- histories of technology of the same which Pérez-Gómez himself starts tural theory of the period—although period,44 widening the interdisciplinary writing, is diagnosed to pertain once the point in time when natural science potential for further historiographical again to the epistemological plane of adopts the cultural role of serving as reflections and deflections of crisis. knowledge production, this time insti- a model for organizing and produc- Novel interdisciplinary interpreta- gated by the advent of IT.48 However, ing human knowledge still retains its tions of architectural developments in a recent debates about the contribution indubitable significance. Yet, if Zilsel period that still needs to be historicized of big data in contemporary knowl- is right to assume that figures like can only raise contemporary architects’ edge production hark back not only to Galileo and Gilbert benefit from their awareness of an epistemological crisis Lyotard’s 1979 discussion but also much direct social contact with the classes of whose diverse repercussions still rock further back to Francis Bacon’s 1627 the craftsmen and the engineers who the cradle of our modern world. While New Atlantis and the constantly renewed

Giamarelos JAE 69:1 25 Kapodistrian University of Athens 2012 and 2013). He is currently enrolled as a year 3 PhD student in architectural history and theory at the Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL). He is a Teaching Fellow in Architectural History and Theory at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, and the University of East London.

Notes 1 See Charles Jencks and George Baird, eds., Meaning in Architecture (London: Barrie & Jenkins, 1969). Alan Colquhoun’s variant of a self-reflexive architectural theory is further explicated in his Essays in Architectural Criticism: Modern Architecture and Historical Change (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1981). 2 For a comprehensive discussion of this sort of linguistic turn in architectural theory and criticism of the period, see Andreas Kourkoulas, Figure 4. Greg Lynn, Patrik Schumacher, and a new parochialism, interdisciplinary histori- “Linguistics in Architectural Theory and rise of positivism in contemporary architectural ographies can certainly offer thoroughly Criticism after Modernism” (PhD diss., Bartlett theory, whose epistemological assumptions need incisive and insightful diagnoses of our School of Architecture UCL, 1986). to be traced back, qualified, and contextualized in 3 Helen Thomas, “Invention in the Shadow of their long historical trajectory. contemporary manifestations of crisis. History: Joseph Rykwert at the University of While it remains to be seen whether Essex,” Journal of Architectural Education 58, no. 2 legacy of his thoroughly empiricist they can also inspire rigorous ways out (2004): 39–45, 40. methodology of intensive data col- of it, the latent potential for their 4 Although Graham Livesey is right to note the “greater availability of phenomenological writings lection. And if one follows a different development definitely remains the translated into English” in the 1980s and early thread from Bacon’s New Atlantis (1627) most significant legacy of Pérez- 1990s—see his “Changing Histories and Theories and the accompanying vision of man’s Gómez’s and the Essex School of Postmodern Architecture,” Building Research domination of the natural world to method of architectural history and and Information 39, no. 1 (2011): 93–96, 95—some the present, then the current ecologi- theory from the 1970s to the present, of the most important texts of this philosophi- cal tradition were readily available in English in cal crisis could also be illuminated in and from one instance of crisis to the 1970s, including Edmund Husserl’s Crisis of its historical and cultural depth—but another. European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology, also in its more recent social, political, trans. D. Carr (Evanston, IL: Northwestern and architectural dimensions, as they Acknowledgments University Press 1970), Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception, trans. C. Smith were developed by activists and artists This article initially came to life as (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1962), Martin of the 1960s and the 1970s, like Rachel a final paper for Kostas Gavroglu’s Heidegger’s Being and Time, trans. J. Macquarrie Carlson and Agnes Denes.49 The list of 2011–12 “History of Science II: and E. Robinson (Oxford: Blackwell 1962), as well similar examples could certainly go on Scientific Revolution” master’s semi- as his “Building, Dwelling, Thinking,” trans. A. and on, by first and foremost including nar at the National and Kapodistrian Hofstadter, in Poetry, Language, Thought (New York: Harper & Row, 1971), 143–161; and Hans-Georg the technocratically narrow concept of University of Athens. I would like Gadamer’s Truth and Method, trans. and ed. G. Downloaded by [University College London] at 09:40 25 August 2015 sustainability through reduced carbon to thank the editors, Timothy Hyde Barden and J. Cummin (New York: Seabury, 1975). emissions usually offered as a reply to a and Marc J. Neveu, as well as the two 5 For a more detailed account of Rykwert’s and larger social, economic, and political set anonymous reviewers of the journal, Vesely’s University of Essex MA program (1968– 78), see Thomas, “Invention” (note 3). Joseph of questions regarding the ecological for their thoroughly constructive Bedford is currently focusing his in-progress PhD crisis. Biomimicry and other recently comments that have consider- dissertation at Princeton University on the same fashionable trends of computer-aided ably reinforced this article’s main MA program. architectural design (that often refer argument. 6 Ibid., 45, note 21. exclusively to similar sources with 7 Ibid., 41. 8 While Thomas is right to highlight both the much different “anti-Cartesian” Author Biography “deliberate intention toward practical applica- 50 conclusions) can also be similarly Stylianos Giamarelos holds a diploma tion” (ibid.) behind Vesely’s seminar and the contextualized and reinterpreted in in architecture and a master’s in “understanding of the design process” that was terms of their much longer cultural architectural theory (NTU Athens considered “integral to the approach to the aca- demic material of the course” by Rykwert (ibid., histories. However, the main point 2007 and 2009), as well as a BA and 42), she is also quick to subsequently ponder should be clear by now. By challenging an MA in philosophy and history of “whether the Essex master’s course unwittingly both our temporal and our disciplinary science and technology (National and enabled the release of architectural theory from

26 Interdisciplinary Deflections the practice of architecture at the moment of its 19 Ibid., 39–40. Architecture in the Age of Divided Representation: The tenuous integration with it,” based on Porter’s 20 Ibid., 45. Question of Creativity in the Shadow of Production 2001 account (ibid., 43). See David Porter, “Letter 21 Ibid., 121. (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004). to the Editor: Lost in the Backlash,” Architectural 22 Ibid., 77. 41 See Dijksterhuis, Mechanization of World Picture Research Quarterly 5, no. 1 (2001): 5. If that is indeed 23 Ibid., 78–81. However, see also Rykwert’s own (note 12). the case, then it is definitely possible to wonder take on Newton in The First Moderns (note 8). 42 See Margaret J. Osler, ed., Rethinking the Scientific about the specific characteristics of a distinctive 24 Koyré, (note 17), 83. Revolution (New York: Cambridge University Press, “Essex School” method of architectural his- 25 Pérez-Gómez, Architecture and the Crisis of Modern 2000); Antoine Picon and Alessandra Ponte, eds., tory and theory, as I do here, irrespectively of Science (note 11), 83. Architecture and the Sciences: Exchanging Metaphors the originally intended practical orientations of 26 Ibid., 59. (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2003); both Rykwert and Vesely. The main intentions 27 Ibid., 62. and Peter Galison and Emily Thompson, eds., The and concepts behind the design studio offered 28 Ibid., 112–16. Architecture of Science (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, by Vesely at the Architectural Association in the 29 Ibid., 160–61. 1999). same period are further explained in Dalibor 30 It is precisely the wider framework of Pérez- 43 See Spiro Kostof, ed., The Architect: Chapters in Vesely and Mohsen Mostafavi, Architecture and Gómez’s study that allows him to interpret the History of the Profession (New York: Oxford Continuity (London: Architectural Association not only the role of architects, like Boullée και University Press, 1977); Mary Hollingsworth, “The Press, 1982), while Rykwert’s legacy is discussed Ledoux, but also the development of whole archi- Architect in Sixteenth-Century Florence,” Art in George Dodds and Robert Tavernor, eds., tectural currents, like neoclassicism, in a light History 7 (1984): 385–410; Elizabeth Mays Merrill, Body and Building: Essays on the Changing Relation of completely different from other scholars of the “The Trattato as Textbook: Francesco di Giorgio’s Body and Architecture (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, period—such as Emil Kaufmann. See Kaufmann, Vision for the Renaissance Architect,” Architectural 2002). Equally illuminating in the same context Three Revolutionary Architects: Boullée, Ledoux and Histories 1, no. 1 (2013): 20; and Manfredo Tafuri, are Joseph Rykwert, On Adam’s House in Paradise: Lequeu (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Interpreting the Renaissance: Princes, Cities, Architects, The Idea of the Primitive Hut in Architectural History Society, 1952). trans. D. Sherer (New Haven, CT: Yale University (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1972), and 31 Even when he refers to clearly technical fields Press, 2006). Joseph Rykwert, The First Moderns: The Architects of (like fortifications and gardening), or the 44 An important first step in this direction has the Eighteenth Century (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, establishment of institutions (like the Royal already been made in Antoine Picon, French 1980). Academy of Science and the Royal Academy of Architects and Engineers in the Age of Enlightenment 9 Thomas, “Invention” (note 3), 40. Architecture), Pérez-Gómez’s main concern (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991). 10 Neil Leach, “The Limits of Poetics,” Building remains with the changes in metaphysical and 45 Leach, “The Limits of Poetics” (note 10), 385. Research and Information 33, no. 4 (2005): 382–85, epistemological assumptions that are aligned with 46 See Patrik Schumacher, The Autopoiesis of 382. the corresponding changes in the central stage of Architecture, 2 vols. (Chichester: Wiley, 2010–12). 11 See Alberto Pérez-Gómez, Architecture and the Crisis the history of the scientific revolution. 47 See Peg Rawes, “Spinoza’s Geometric and of Modern Science (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 32 See, e.g., Robert King Merton, “Science, Ecological Ratios,” in The Politics of Parametricism: 1983), 3–14. Technology and Society in Seventeenth Century Digital Technologies in Architecture, ed. Manuel 12 While Pérez-Gómez’s references also include England,” Osiris 4, pt. 2 (1938): 360–632. Shvartzberg and Matthew Poole (London: works of somewhat peripheral relevance to the 33 See H. Floris Cohen, The Scientific Revolution: A Bloomsbury Academic, forthcoming). interests of his study (like Yates’s 1964 and 1972 Historiographical Inquiry (Chicago: University of 48 See Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern studies on the occult and the hermetic tradition Chicago Press, 1994), 314. Condition: A Report on Knowledge, trans. G. or Burtt’s 1924 study on the role of Neoplatonism 34 See Barry Barnes, Scientific Knowledge and Bennington and B. Massumi (Minneapolis: in the rise of modern science that is later elabo- Sociological Theory (London: Routledge, 1974), University of Minnesota Press, 1984); and rated in the work of Alexandre Koyré), along with 99–124. Stylianos Giamarelos, “Have We Ever Been Dijksterhuis’s very important 1950 study on the 35 Ibid., 114. In other words, Barnes believes that Postmodern? The Essential Tension within the scientific revolution and the mechanization of the Koyré’s approach is right for the wrong reasons. Metamodern Condition,” in Re-thinking the world picture, he hardly ever refers to, or com- His intellectual history makes sense precisely Human in Technology Driven Architecture, ed. ments upon, them in the main body of his text. because Galileo’s practice, for instance, bears Constantin Spyridonidis and Maria Voyatzaki, Hence, it is only Koyré’s history of science that almost no relation to normal scientific practices Transactions on Architectural Education 55 (2012): substantially informs Pérez-Gómez’s study. See that come before him—at a moment in time 408–19, www.enhsa.net/Publications/AR2011.pdf Edwin Arthur Burtt, The Metaphysical Foundations when science has not yet been institutionalized as (accessed October 24, 2014). of Modern Physical Science (London: Routledge & such. 49 See Peg Rawes, ed., Relational Architectural Ecologies: Kegan Paul, 1924); Frances Yates, The Rosicrucian 36 See Edgar Zilsel, “The Sociological Roots of Architecture, Nature and Subjectivity (Abingdon: Enlightenment (London: Routledge & Kegan Science,” American Journal of Sociology 47, no. 4 Routledge, 2013). Paul, 1972); Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic (1942): 544–62. 50 See Greg Lynn, Animate Form (New York: Downloaded by [University College London] at 09:40 25 August 2015 Tradition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 37 See Cohen, The Scientific Revolution (note 33), 347. Princeton Architectural Press, 1999). 1964); and Eduard Jan Dijksterhuis, Mechanization 38 See Anneliese Maier, Die Vorläufer Galileis of World Picture: Pythagoras to Newton, trans. C. im 14. Jahrhundert: Studien zur Naturphilosophie Dikshoorn (Oxford: Clarendon, 1961). der Spätscholastik (Rome: Edizioni di Storia e 13 See Edmund Husserl, The Crisis of European Sciences Letteratura, 1949). and Transcendental Phenomenology, trans. D. Carr 39 Duhem’s study originally developed in response (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, to Ernst Mach’s 1883 positivist thesis of a total 1970), and Alexandre Koyré, From the Closed World rupture between modern science and similar to the Infinite Universe (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins practices of the past. See Pierre Duhem, To Save Press, 1957). the Phenomena, trans. E. Doland and C. Maschler 14 Pérez-Gómez, Architecture and the Crisis of Modern (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969), and Science (note 11), 4. Ernst Mach, The Science of Mechanics: A Critical and 15 Ibid., 10. Historical Account of its Development, 6th rev. ed., 16 Ibid., 10–11. trans. T. J. McCormack (London: Open Court, 17 Alexandre Koyré, Metaphysics and Measurement: 1960). Essays in Scientific Revolution (London: Chapman & 40 While Pérez-Gómez’s mentor, Dalibor Vesely, Hall, 1968), 75–76, 80. did cover some ground in this direction, the era 18 Ibid., 19–21. is ripe for further historical research. See Vesely,

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